ByteDance’s VR System Developer Pico Obtains VR Eye Tracking Patent

On July 26, Pico, an affiliated company of ByteDance, was granted a patent named “Eye Tracking Method and System Based on Virtual Reality”, and its application date was March 30, 2021.

The patent summary shows that the method first presents eyeball calibration data to both eyes of a user through a display and then calculates distance between the user’s pupils. Then, the left and right tracking cameras capture the reflected infrared rays of the light sources and construct tracking data for each eye. The device will calculate the tracking data of the other eye according to the distance between pupils and arrange the data according to the time sequence of the specific frame to form the tracking data of both eyes to complete the eye tracking calibration.

According to the patent, because only one side of infrared light sources can be lit in the same specific frame, there is no interference from the other source. Further, problems caused by emitted light sources in binocular tracking often interfere with each other but the company’s new system of calibration largely solves this problem.

SEE ALSO: Former Xiaomi Design Director Nandir Joins ByteDance’s Pico

Earlier, on June 28, commercial information website Tianyancha showed that a patent named “VR Experience Machine (Mecha Edition)” applied by another affiliated company of ByteDance was authorized, and the application date was March 17, 2022. According to the patent abstract, this design product is used to quickly experience VR equipment, and the key point of design lies in the combination of shape and pattern.

In recent years, ByteDance has continuously increased investment in VR-related fields. At the end of August 2021, Pico sent a letter to all employees confirming that the company was acquired by ByteDance. In addition, Jason Ma, the former head of Xiaomi VR, was confirmed to join ByteDance, and his personal certification on Chinese social media has been changed to Head of Social VR at ByteDance’s Pico.